Welcome to the Curran Index, a constantly expanding storehouse of information about who was writing the articles, reviews, stories, novels, and poems that made up the world’s first industrialized press.

If you are trying to identify the author of this or that unsigned contribution in a Victorian magazine, or if you’re looking for all known periodical contributions by a particular author, the Curran Index may be able to help. You can also use the Curran Index to explore broader patterns of authorship in the periodical press of Victorian Britain.

Begun as a supplement to the Wellesley Index, the Curran Index has now taken on a life of its own, identifying authors in a much wider range of publications than were included in its predecessor. As of mid May 2020 the Curran Index features over 155,000 contributions to influential 19th-century British weeklies, monthlies, quarterlies, and annuals.

How do I search the Curran Index?

To find out who wrote a particular article, story, or poem, go to the Contributors tab. In the headings at left, select the name of the magazine under “Periodical” and under “Title of Contribution” type one or more words from the title.

You can also use the Contributors page to find out what contributions an author wrote for various periodicals. Choosing the name under “Contributors” will give the whole list of contributions by that author. You can narrow this list by selecting one or more periodical names and by selecting a year or range of years on the dates slider.

To learn about one or more authors, go to the Author Info tab.You can also look to see how many authors of a given gender or nationality, for instance, wrote for various periodicals at specified periods, and how extensive their contributions were.

Use the Advanced Search tab to explore the varying patterns of authorship and content in one or more Victorian periodicals by controlling for such variables as gender, nationality, genre, education, and time period.